Cho Gao

Location: Level 3, Melbourne Central
Link: www.chogao.com.au/
Cuisine: Thai, Vietnamese, Asian, Fusion

Walk in and you are surrounded by old South East Asian furniture and decorations. A [what the website calls] 20 metre bar stretches from the doorway through to the other end of the restaurant / bar. The furniture ranges from high tables and chairs to normal tables and stools, as well as armchairs for a relaxing drink.

We were seated at one of the high, long and narrow tables, which whilst very creative, was highly impractical for eating on. A group of us decided to share a few of the tapas, and ended up ordering:

• Gado Gado;
• Eggplant box;
• Crispy pork belly;
• Flat head tempura; and
  
• Pad Thai.
  

The gado gado was simple and fresh, with a very light peanut sauce, and there was plenty of it. The eggplant box and flat head tempura were also quite nice. The crispy pork belly on the other hand, was extremely oily... Now I'm used to pork belly being somewhat fatty, but this was as though they had soaked the meat in excess fat overnight and then forgot to drain the meat after cooking it! The pad thai finished the meal off wonderfully, with fresh tamarind sauce and pieces of chicken, egg, tofu and peanuts. Mmmmm...

And the bonus of the night was that because we had spent over $50, we were shouted a free dessert platter (worth $29!) that came with chocolate mousse, creamed rice, jelly and banana fritter with coconut ice-cream.

Apparently Cho Gao regularly has specials like the dessert special on during weeknights, at the time of writing, they are offering two-for-one meals (except Thurs to Sat nights after 5pm). Check the website for updates.

Overall rating: 8/10